Texadelphia honors SMU Athletics with mural (Photo by Nick McCarthy, The Daily Campus)

Texadelphia unveiled a mural dedicated to some of SMU’s greatest athletes Thursday night.

The 225-inch mural is a tribute to the history of SMU athletics and the players that have contributed to the schools’ past successes.

Restaurant owner Tom Landis is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, but his wife is a graduate of SMU.

It was Landis who contacted SMU to get the project started.

“I wanted to get more involved with SMU athletics and bring in more SMU students,” he said after the official unveiling.

Landis is also looking to do athletic promotions at the restaurant as the different sports seasons begin.

The project took nine months to complete. The artist is former SMU employee Grant Hawkins, who now works part-time designing the athletic posters and the Web site.

The mural is a montage of sports photographs hanging on the wall next to the ordering line. It includes a timeline at the bottom highlighting important events in the history of Mustang athletics.

The event was full of SMU alumni, along with current SMU athletics staff including new head basketball coach Matt Doherty, Associate Athletic Director Scott Secules and Athletic Director Steve Orsini.

Orsini talked about this being a great opportunity to create community interaction.

According to the new athletic director, SMU provides the “only college athletics in Dallas,” and there should be “more community partnerships.” This is only the beginning to the SMU community partnerships; the other portion is SMU’s responsibility. Orsini recognized that in order to really bring the community to Mustang athletics the teams have to win.

Easier said than done. However, 2006 could be the year that SMU puts itself back on the collegiate football map.